Taking the year off?

[caitirose]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I am graduating in June and plan on applying in the 2011 cycle. I am looking for advice on what others in a similar situation did for their year off? I ultimately need to be making some money to save up for d school and would love to be doing something dental related. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[userah]

if you feel your stats are pretty good in terms of GPA and DAT score, work on your extracurriculars. Specifically, you can look up dental offices in the area and see if you can either work there or volunteer there. Regardless, you'll get more exposure to the field which is always a good thing. If you did relatively well on your DATs, you can also consider teaching for Kaplan. They pay pretty well at $20 an hour.

Pretty much as long as you don't completely waste your time, everything's a learning experience.

 

[redraider2009]

At my dental school interviews I told the admissions board that I would have 8 months off between undergrad graduation and the start of dental school and they seemed very happy about that. They said that would greatly reduce the chances of getting burnt out on the heavy course load. Currently I am working at a tutoring company and enjoying the time off!

 

[NAVY DDS 2010]

For me, it had been 9 years between taking any college course and starting dental school. I know there are a handful of schools that require you to have completed your pre-reqs within a certain time frame, but for the most part they don't care as long as you have a strong application. No school looked negatively at my application and denied me because of the extended time away from school.

 

[MatthewLeeDDS]

I'm actually in a very similar situation right now.

I graduated a semester early (Dec '09) and won't start dental school until this June. I am also working for a tutoring company and just relaxing and enjoying my few months off. One thing that is different between our situations is that I was already accepted to dental school on December 1 so I'm not having to worry about applying in the future. I would consider at least picking up a hobby that shows you can work with your hands or doing some serious volunteering as a chair-side assistant if you can to help your application. No school means your grades can't get better (or worse 👍) but it would help do something dental related.

 

[Kong57]

Hey. I got accepted to dental school out of college and could have been included in the graduating class of 2012, but decided to pursue a masters program instead. One of the main reasons I did this, was the fact that I was not 100% sure that dental school was for me. I have finished my masters and will be starting school this upcoming year. Looking back, I am very happy with my decision and will be much more focused than I would have been two years ago. So... I say if you want to take a year off, do it!